The "Akiraprise"
Design

The first pictures of Enterprise NX-01 from the TV
Guide were published in the web on Sunday, July 8th, two months before the
series went on air. My immediate thought was "They plagiarized the
Akira!" when I saw the top view of the NX-01. After looking at the ship
from different angles, it is obvious that the NX-01 is not the blatant rip-off
that I first assumed it was, but it is still lacking both the required
distinctiveness for the protagonist of a multi-million dollar franchise and, in
a fictional sense, the
look of a time 100 years before the USS Enterprise NCC-1701.

This article
critically discusses the hull design of the "Akiraprise". Since I first published my views on the
design, I have received hundreds of comments, and most of them were either very
positive or very negative. My opinion was even quoted in a column in Entertainment
Weekly. I have decided to change the overall tone of this article
that used to be very polemic at first. My apologies to the people who make Enterprise and
who may have seen my criticism of their work as a personal insult. I think I
have very good points why the ship is not what it should have been, and I think
I don't need drastic language to emphasize that.

Enterprise NX-01
and the Akira

The mere look of a Star Trek starship model or any other prop
may not be as essential as the quality of the stories, but especially Enterprise
NX-01 as a vessel which we were supposed to see through prospective seven seasons should
have been something special and unique. I don't think that the overall exterior of the
ship fulfills this requirement, at least not for fans who are remotely familiar with Star
Trek ship designs.

While they look considerably different from other
angles, the top views of Enterprise NX-01 and the Akira
class closely resemble each other like no other two vessels of the Star Trek
Universe. It is undeniable that Enterprise NX-01 was more than only inspired by
the Akira class.The overall proportions, the
shape of the saucer (the one of the Akira being slightly more elliptical), the arrangement of the double hulls and nacelle pylons,
everything is much the same as on the Akira.This is
even more surprising as the pylon assemblies of the two ships look very
different in a side view. It looks like the Akira was taken, the twin hulls bent
down, and the nacelle pylons bent up, while retaining their basic shapes. We may ask already now why two ships of very different
eras (more than 200 years apart) and of very different sizes (Akira: 440m,
NX-01: 225m) are that much alike.

It has been objected that all the Enterprises from the
original NCC-1701 to the NCC-1701-E share common design characteristics as well, namely a
saucer-neck-engineering-nacelles-up configuration, and that this might be the
same with the NX-01 and the Akira. There are, however, considerable differences
between all of these Enterprises and their respective successors. The Enterprise-A
(Constitution refit) and the Enterprise-B
(Excelsior class), for instance, have very few features in common except for
the very basic hull arrangement. The hull shapes and proportions are very
dissimilar,
and the sleeker look of the newer ship points to a more advanced technology.
Even the Enterprise-C (Ambassador class)
and Enterprise-D (Galaxy class) which are
sometimes said to be much alike, share rather few features. Again, the
proportions are very different and we can easily tell which of the two ships is
the more advanced one. The NX-01 and the Akira, although the nacelle pylons are
pointing in different directions, resemble one another much more than any two of the
Enterprises. This would be still no problem to explain if they were ships of the
same era, but they are supposed to be 200 years and several design generations
apart.

Enterprise NX-01 fortunately has small windows, no visible lifeboats,
no phaser strips and no transporter emitters, just as we know it from the
original Enterprise
NCC-1701 and should expect from a ship of the 22nd century too. Still, several details are the
same as on the Akira, although they are neither the same technology
nor the same size, and not even serve the same function.
The way the
catamaran hulls run into the saucer, the location of the weapons pod between the
twin hulls, the locations of the four impulse engines, the raised rectangular
area between the twin hulls and even the characteristic indentation in
the saucer bow are the same as on the Akira. It looks like this all was retained
from the very first approach to convert the Akira design to the NX-01. There is
no visible evolution of the design. The silliest common feature is the
strange hatch on the top of each catamaran hull. It is supposed to be a part of
the plasma supercharger of NX-01, something that the Akira almost certainly
doesn't have. Still, it looks exactly the same as on the Akira.

Summarizing, the similarities between the two ships are
just too obvious to deny. Considering that even many insignificant
ships that appeared somewhere in the background were given a very distinctive
look, it is a shame that this wasn't possible or wasn't deemed useful for the vessel that is going to
represent Star Trek for the next seven years. Doug Drexler's detail
work on the NX-01 is terrific and it features some original ideas, but I would
have expected just the same from the overall shape.

It may have been a
"political" decision to go with the Akira because it is a proven fan
favorite. As John Eaves as well as Rick Berman pointed out,
the NX-01 was designed consciously with the Akira in mind. But ironically, most fans are not supposed
to care about starship design and to even know the Akira, which is how the
design is often defended. So should the few (?) Akira fans
be glad that their ship was modified and transferred to the 22nd century? If
they had done the same based on a more prominent ship, let's say USS Voyager,
wouldn't it be seen as justified if the fans protested against it? If it was decided
at one point to take the Akira as a basis, why is the final result still so
similar to the starting point? Why wasn't much more changed about the
proportions? Why has the NX-01 even several details that are the same as on the
Akira? Why has the NX-01 hardly any unique design features, a few things that can't
be found on other (newer) ships? Why is virtually every older
technology that could have made the ship look different (like the shuttle drop
bay, the grappler, the sensors or the phase weapons) a hidden feature?

I firmly believe that, without any additional
efforts, a really original ship with a cool old-style look could have been created
remotely based on the Akira. This is proven by many alternative fan designs that
take the design away from the Akira. Agreed, they are all not as detailed by far
as the actual NX-01, but wouldn't they have made better starting points?

Enterprise NX-01 and the
Design Lineage

We can't tell exactly how a ship from the 22nd century has
to look (and I never claimed that I knew). Designing a ship looking "more primitive than the NCC-1701" wouldn't have
worked for two reasons. For once, the original Enterprise largely lacked surface
details - because of the limited budget and modeling techniques, but also
because of Matt Jefferies' idea of having everything easily accessible inside
the ship's hull. There would have been no point in designing a still less
detailed model for Enterprise. The second reason is that, from the 22nd to the
24th century, starship designs haven't necessarily evolved from clumsy boxes to
always sleeker and more streamlined designs. On the other hand, the series was
consciously conceived as a prequel, and this setting would have required a less
advanced look and feel of the ship (like of all other
technology too) which the overall design of NX-01 doesn't have.

Even if it is only a subjective impression, Enterprise NX-01 looks more advanced than the Daedalus and
still more recent
than the original Constitution, a ship 100
years younger than the NX-01. Maybe we may have to abandon the Daedalus class
which was never shown as the real vessel but only as a model in Sisko's ready
room (although I know I won't do that). But the problem of reconciling Enterprise NX-01
with the Enterprise NCC-1701 remains. If we don't look
closely, NX-01 is a ship
of the 24th century - even if we completely ignore the similarity to the Akira.
At the first glance, just the old-style nacelles are a nice concession to the 22nd
century - actually one of the few things I like about the overall design. Aside from that, only the metallic deflector dish and the small windows
suggest that this is supposed to be an old ship.

Matt Jefferies designed the NCC-1701 with the idea that
all equipment should be accessible from inside the ship, for it would be
complicated or dangerous to service or swap out parts when working in
spacesuits. This is why his creation is so smooth and has very few hull details.
Later ships, beginning with Andrew Probert's revamp of the Enterprise, have
pronounced hull plating and/or a deflector grid, as well as thrusters, phaser
emitters, photon torpedo tubes, sensor pallets, plasma vents and (since the
Ambassador) visible lifeboats. It is obvious that all these details are supposed
to make the ships look more technical, and more credible when visual effects are
created. What bothers me about NX-01 in this respect is that the ship has rather
the typical hull details of the TNG era ships than of TOS, including an
"Aztec pattern" of the hull plating. We may claim that the Enterprise
NCC-1701 had at least part of these hull details too, only that the budget in
the 60s didn't allow to show them. I wouldn't have expected NX-01 to look as
smooth as the NCC-1701 and I don't want to go back to the visual effects of the
60s. The NX-01 needs the details. But rather than the TNG style, it should
have been given a coarse and rather industrial look with gadgets attached to the
hull -
suggesting that Jefferies' idea of having everything inside the hull would be
developed for future ships. Anything visually different from the established
Starfleet look would have suited NX-01 better, but the ancient technology is
mostly hidden behind hatches.

The cone-shaped center of the saucer bottom
looks a lot like on the good old Enterprise NCC-1701, while the panels
on the bottom are a bit reminiscent of the Enterprise-E
(Sovereign class). The saucer edge
resembles that of the Excelsior (or
Enterprise-B) a lot. This doesn't compensate for the top view showing an Akira class.
On the contrary, it causes even some more trouble. I have no objection to using
several elements from other ships when designing a new one, but such "tips
of the hat" are out of place when designing something that
is supposed to predate everything we have seen yet. Instead of fitting the ship
into the design lineage, this screws the lineage up aside from its overall too modern look.

Summarizing, the ship looks as if it has come 200 years
from the future. The hull shape is essentially that of a Starfleet ship of the
24th century, there was hardly any effort to design something visually different. It
appears to me as a ship from the 24th century that has
been retrofitted with a golden deflector dish and old-style nacelles - and
old-style letters, for those who insist on mentioning them. Just like fitting a
modern car with a chrome bumper and white sidewall tires. We could make
up explanations why the general design of ships went from the
streamlined but detailed 22nd century style over the clumsy but even 23rd century look back to
the same streamlined and detailed shapes in the 24th century. But wouldn't it be
better if we could see at the first glance that this is an old ship? At least
the details of NX-01 were retro-engineered, but why is most "old"
technology hidden behind a hatch? The "Easter
Eggs", details that were taken from other Enterprises, are counterproductive in this respect
as well - although they add at least some more
diversity to the ship.

"Retro look" is a word that may explain why the
Akira and the NX-01 look so much alike, or better, why the Akira looks a lot
like the old NX-01 - although we must assume that their technologies are
woefully different. But what is retro look about? It is an attempt by a company
to sell their products better by making them look like classics. So, if we go
with the "retro look" explanation, we would have to defend why 24th
century fleet yard engineers pick up the style of the 22nd century. Some cars
have a deliberate retro look, just like
the BMW Z8 (1999) imitates the classic BMW 507 from the 50's. The difference
to starships is that cars are not entirely designed by engineers, but follow certain
fashions, while starships (like airplanes, most sea ships or military vehicles)
are just not supposed to be stylish. If they happen to look stylish this is mostly because
good engineering follows simple rules, natural and man-made. The man-made rules
are subject to change as the technology is refined, dictating a different look
for a new generation of designs.

So if a 24th
century starship (Akira) looks a lot like a 22nd century starship (Enterprise
NX-01), it must be rather out of a fashion than a coincidence. But it is
actually still worse, since we know how well the Akira fits into the
2360s (note the many similarities to the Galaxy class). This is why the
Akira can't be a rehash. NX-01 is the rehash. And please spare me of silly time
travel explanations along the lines that Cochrane was inspired by looking at the
cool Enterprise-E through the telescope and tried to make his vessels look like
that!

Enterprise NX-01 and the Fans

Well,I know that there are many
fans who actually like the new ship for its cool look, but unlike it may be the
case with other starship designs I don't think
it's so much a matter of taste here. Nothing in the Star Trek Universe can be seen
isolated from everything else. The design doesn't work out technically and
historically, and I don't see what it would change if it looked good. As I said above, people in the 50's would notice that a "retro" BMW Z8 doesn't
belong there, and to me and many other fans the NX-01 is just as alien in the 22nd century
when Earth's
space technology is still at its beginning. There are also some fans who just don't care about
starship designs or about technology altogether. Star Trek, however, is a sci-fi
show in which the technology usually plays a major role, and for this matter I
think it requires
at least a basic plausibility and continuity which Enterprise NX-01 with its too modern look and too advanced capabilities may not have.

As a ship which is probably designed with the main
objective of looking cool, NX-01 may appeal to younger fans, to those who don't
know that much of TNG, DS9 or Voyager and much less of TOS. I am missing the
respect to what has been established before in the ship design as well as the technological
continuity, and I'm not referring to superficial details like flip-chirp
communicators or "Easter Eggs" in the look of the NX-01 that create a
pseudo-continuity. Rick Berman himself
said about this issue: "The terrific thing about this for longtime fans is that they'll get to see the development of all the technological gadgetry and capabilities that have become part of the Trek
mythos. They'll see them in their infant, trial-and-error stages, before they end up being what we know them to be."
He probably meant something different than actual long-time fans expected to see
in the show. The producers are continuing technology-wise in the 24th century, because they
are not ready or not willing to do it differently, and because a starship without transporter, subspace
communication or FTL sensors wouldn't be very exciting. Most concessions to the
22nd century are only superficial, like the often quoted push-button interfaces,
the old-style nacelles and some other retro-engineered features that only look a
bit older but are essentially as powerful as in the 24th century. With most
devices there is not the development Berman promised, and this scares away especially
long-time fans. I know of many of them that they
are annoyed, and several of them are not watching the series.

My Conclusion

I myself don't think that Enterprise is too bad. The
series has its share of good stories, and the impact of the too advanced
technology is not quite as severe as I anticipated. Nevertheless, the series
doesn't have the potential to become my favorite, and this is at least in part
because of the look of the NX-01. I have come to appreciate the detail work that
Doug Drexler has invested to create a both technically sound and esthetically
pleasing ship. The overall look, however, is something that I can hardly accept.
Aside from all arguments about the lack of originality, about fictional
technology and the design lineage, I am sure that a ship could have been
designed that would have pleased everyone - from the young fan boys to the
technology buffs.

The Opposite Side

I am glad that I could engage in a dialog with Doug
Drexler who designed NX-01. He told me of his efforts to design the ship as
technically correct as possible. Although I still don't like the overall look of
the NX-01,
this allowed me to see the whole issue from another side, and I now appreciate
much of Doug's work.

Doug also sent me a couple of images in response to my and
other fans' arguments that the NX-01 design looks wrong. I'm including his
evidence without further commenting about it. The first image shows a comparison
of aircraft carriers, in response to the argument that dated technology should
be looking considerably different than what is high tech today. The second image
compares the "Flying Wing" experimental aircraft from the 50's with a
modern B-2 bomber. The shape of the "Flying Wing" vanished for over 30 years until it was
resurrected for the B-2. Could it have
been the same with the NX-01 and the Akira? The B-52, finally, is an example for
a design with an exceptionally long lifespan. This bomber has survived two or
three generations of newer aircraft already now, and maybe it could be the same
with starship designs.